The present invention relates to two-dimensional design and machine control systems and, more particularly, to those systems generally designated with the acronym CAD/CAM.
Computer aided design has been available for some time, so has computer aided machining, and the two have previously been used in combination. However, the hardware involved has usually included mini-computers or mainframe computers, or has suffered from problems of control accuracy. Such systems have relied upon costly hardware and have generally been out of reach of the smaller designer or manufacturer.
As a result of studying the systems presently available, it was discovered that the art lacked a versatile and efficient method for utilizing existing computer design programs and translating the data produced by such programs into a machine control language that was convenient to use and readily adaptable to a wide range of X-Y coordinate controllable mechanisms.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a relatively low cost system enabling an operator to design two-dimensional parts directly on a computer of the type presently referred to as a "personal computer" or by the abbreviation "PC".
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of using such computer assisted designs to operate automatically the X-Y coordinate drives associated with either a machine tool or a plotting table or the like.